Outside the Camp or, “Can’t get there from here…”

The early disciples in Jerusalem were respected by their neighbors, but socially they were shunned. The book of Acts says, “…they were all with one accord in Solomon’s portico [a public meeting place in the Jewish Temple]. But none of the rest dared to associate with them; however, the people held them in high esteem.”1

To the average Jew of the time, this group was strictly off-limits, no matter how moral its members were or how much good they did for others. After all, their leader, supposed to be the Messiah, had been condemned by the Priests and Rabbis and teachers of the Torah as a blasphemer — one who curses God. He had been turned over to the Gentile authorities with a demand that He be executed, and the Romans had taken Him outside the city and crucified Him along with common robbers. Since then, a number of the group’s leaders had been jailed. There was no telling what might happen to them next, and being linked to the group might suddenly become as dangerous as it was scandalous.

The disciples, however, expected such treatment. The Master Himself had said, “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you”2 and, “If they have called the head of the house Beelzebul [the prince of demons], how much more the members of his household?”3 They were reminded that their Master’s crucifixion resembled the way carcasses of sacrificial animals were disposed of:

The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp. And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come. (Hebrews 13:11-14)

“Outside the camp” was where the disciples ought to be, because that’s where their Master was. But what was “the camp”? According to their Master’s teaching, it was a religion full of hypocrisy (pretending), marked by well-advertised charitable donations, long public prayers, and showy religious acts.4 People in “the camp” honored God with their lips while their hearts were far away.5 Their religion was based on the traditions of men rather than the commands of God.6 They were careful in their rituals but neglectful of the people around them.7 They looked good to other people, but inside, where only God could see, they were full of self-indulgence, dishonesty, and lawlessness.8

The most striking picture of “the camp” was one the Master Himself gave:

Hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our forefathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of the sin of your forefathers! (Matthew 23:29-32)

That was the ultimate hypocrisy — they traced an unbroken religious heritage back through history while pretending not to have inherited the sins of their fathers. As most Bible readers should realize, it doesn’t work that way, because God “visits the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate Me.”9 And, as just about everybody knows, the people He was addressing went on to kill both Him and many of His followers, proving His point.

But what really proved His point, His ultimate point, was the life that His disciples lived “outside the camp.” It wasn’t just that they got reviled and persecuted and killed for the sake of His Name. It was that they actually lived a radically different life from those who were inside “the camp.” They actually obeyed the Master’s teachings and did the opposite of what the hypocrites were doing. They did their good deeds and prayed their prayers in secret. They drew near to God in their hearts and lived to please Him, rather than men. They emphasized love and justice and mercy and loyalty rather than tithes and offerings and traditions and ceremonies. They concentrated on their character and let their reputation take care of itself. And most importantly, they loved each other the way He had loved them — without reserve, not holding on to their time or their possessions or their opinions or their own agendas. They contributed all they had to meeting each other’s needs. They were abandoned to the Spirit of Love (which is the Spirit of God) and dedicated to seeing His Kingdom established on the earth.

The effect was galvanizing. People called them “these men who have turned the world upside down”10 and “this sect [cult] that is spoken against everywhere.”11 Yes, they were being spoken against, just like the head of their house had been called the prince of demons. And who, mainly, was speaking against them? Why, those “inside the camp,” of course — the ones whose false religious game was being shown up for the empty shell that it was. The disciples were hounded from town to town by religious pretenders — slandered, and beaten, and killed. But everywhere they went, people were being saved, becoming disciples, and learning to love others just as their Master had loved them.

Now we come to a difficult point in the story. It is a turning point, one marked by many passages in the New Testament, but especially by the book of James and the first three chapters of the book of Revelation. All along, the disciples had found insincere people in their midst. The Master Himself had picked Judas Iscariot to be an apostle, but the man had chosen to be a traitor. Ananias and Sapphira had been hypocrites, pretending to give all, while holding back a portion for themselves. Even some of Paul’s co-workers had deserted him when difficult times came. But, sooner or later, the light of the “life outside the camp” had exposed the insincere.